ADB finances highway to connect southern localities

The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will grant a 410 million USD loan to
Vietnam to build sections of a second arterial highway connecting Ho
Chi Minh City to the Mekong Delta and southern coastal regions.

The transport link will serve as a foundation to lever the economic
and industrial development of Vietnam’s western provinces in the
Mekong Delta, said Transport Specialist for ADB’s Southeast Asia
Department Rustam Ishenaliev.

The Central Mekong
Delta Region Connectivity Project will construct a section of the second
southern highway, comprising two cabled-stayed bridges with a combined
length of 5 km and associated assess and interconnecting roads totaling
26 km. The road will run on the boundaries of An Giang, Can Tho and Dong
Thap provinces to the west of the Mekong Delta Region.

The two bridges and the interconnecting road will cut travel time
between Ho Chi Minh City and Long Xuyen from 3.5 to 2.5 hours.

Besides these transport benefits, the project is expected to support
more inclusive development, improve access to basic social and health
services, increase national food security and facilitate the private
sector investment in the region.

The highway is
expected to be open to traffic by the end of 2017, benefiting 170,000
road users daily and will help generate 400,000 new jobs in construction
and manufacturing sectors.

The project will
incorporate design innovations to protect infrastructure from the
impacts of climate change in the Mekong Delta, including more frequent
severe weather events, violent seasonal flooding and sea level rise.

The project is estimated to cost 860 million USD, which 410 million
USD from the ADB.The Australian Agency for International Development
(AusAID) will provide 160 million AUD for the Cao Lanh bridge and
interconnecting road while and 260 million USD from the Export-Import
Bank of Korea will be used to construct the Van Cong bridge and its
association road works.

The Vietnamese Government will contribute 56 million USD towards the cost of the project.-VNA